Beyond the simple box pinhole

Exploring Options for Pinhole Cameras

Now that you have the basic ideas about how to build and use a pinhole camera (make it light tight, find a way to open and close the pinhole aperture without moving the camera, decide what kind of light sensitive material suits your purpose, etc.), you can consider a few creative options.

COFFEE CAN CAMERA - Coffee cans make great cameras, especially when loaded with 4 x 5 inch sheet film. You get a negative that can be enlarged or contact printed. Just don't forget to remove the coffee first.

TOILET ROLL CAMERA - The cardboard core of a toilet paper roll will produce an interesting image shape with an extreme wide angle view.

FILM CARTRIDGE CAMERA - The opaque containers that hold 35 mm film rolls can, believe it or not, be used to expose small strips of film, also producing a very wide angle perspective.

There is an interesting esthetic created when film is mounted against a curved surface as is the case with the above three cameras. Get creative. Check them out for yourself. The possibilities are endless.

INSTAMATIC FILM & THE PINHOLE CAMERA

Film comes in all kinds of formats, ranging from the tiny 110 film strips to 8 x 10 inch sheets. One format that has a lot to offer the pinholer is Kodak 126 film, which comes in a reel-to-reel plastic cassette that is packaged in a perfect little rectangular box. The original purpose of the film was for use in the Kodak Instamatic camera. Take the box the film is packaged in and make it into a pinhole camera. Find one of the 100 million or so Instamatics that were manufactured in the sixties (check out the second hand store). Put the Instamatic camera in a change bag along with the film and pinhole camera (or use a darkroom). In total darkness, first use the Instamatic to advance the film. Then, retrieve the film, put it into your pinhole camera, seal it up and take it out of the change bag and you're ready to make an exposure. You can make 24 exposures on one roll. Hand it over to your local photo finisher and wait for your beautiful 4 x 4 inch prints to be ready

SHEET FILM & THE PINHOLE CAMERA

Sheet films have tremendous expressive potential for use in pinhole cameras but require a fair amount of expertise with exposure and development.

POLAROID & THE PINHOLE

Polaroid film - Another creative venture that doesn't require so much expertise involves Polaroid materials. You can build a box pinhole camera to use a large variety of Polaroid instant films. One option is to use the Polaroid camera as the means by which to process the picture and the pinhole camera as the means to make exposures. Use a change bag or darkroom to move the picture packs between the two cameras. Polaroid Integral Film Packs are excellent for making instant pinhole images.

Converting an old Polaroid Land Camera into a pinhole camera is another interesting possibility. There is a large variety of pack films still being manufactured by the Polaroid Corporation that can be used in old Polaroid cameras like the "Super Shooter." (There are millions of these cameras around - you can probably buy them by the boxfull at thrift stores). Here's how to make the conversion:

One product that is especially useful is Polaroid Type 665. Its a peel-apart instant pack film, ISO 80, that fits both old and new Polaroid cameras. It gives a 3 1/4"x 4 1/4" B&W picture and a reusable negative of the same size. What a great deal. These negatives are very fine grained and can be used to make very expressive enlargements. Try an exposure of 7 or 8 seconds in full sunlight.

Polaroid also makes pack film backs for large format cameras. You can build a camera to use the Polaroid back and have access to the full range of instant film products. Incidentally, there are a number of commercially-made pinhole cameras available that are designed to use these Polaroid backs and also 4 x 5 film holders.

BESELER CORPORATION MANUFACTURED PINHOLES

Here's an interesting option; the Beseler Corporation, which is well known for making enlargers, is currently manufacturing a pinhole camera kit that has all the parts, including a pre-drilled pinhole, necessary to assemble a fully operational camera. It makes 6 x 9 centimeter negatives on 120 roll film and has been a big seller in Europe. You can purchase it over the internet here.

CONVERT YOUR SLR or dSLR CAMERA FOR USE AS A PINHOLE CAMERA

Here's one more option for quick and easy pinhole photography; use your old metal, mechanical, manual single lens reflex (SLR) camera or your digital SLR in manual mode. Take the lens off and put it in safe storage. Replace it with a body cap, but first cut a square opening in the cap and cover that with a small pinhole drilled in .002" shim stock. Presto. You are ready to make 35mm or digital pinhole pictures. You may even be able to see the scene through the viewfinder.

Many other older-style cameras, like the Kodak Duaflex III shown on the right, can be converted to pinhole cameras that take excellent pictures.